Zobek
Zobek is the secondary antagonist and narrator of the Castlevania reboot game Lords of Shadow, as well as the reboots equivalent to Death. He was voiced by Patrick Stewart, who also played Locutus in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Rafe Bentley in Masterminds, Dr. Jonas in Conspiracy Theory, King Buffo in the Courage the Cowardly Dog series, Pharaoh Seti I in DreamWorks' The Prince of Egypt, and John Bosley in the 2019 remake of Charlie’s Angels. Personality Zobek is an apparent protagonist right up until the cutscene before the final boss, in which he is revealed to be the final Lord of Shadow. Like all the Lords of Shadow, he is the dark side left behind by the Brotherhood of Light founder of the same name. Although Satan is largely considered the archenemy of Gabriel Belmont, Zobek is easily his most personal enemy, being the one responsible for making Gabriel murder his wife using the Devil Mask. This revelation was ultimately the beginning of Gabriel's descent into darkness, turning him into Dracula in the process. He is also the tritagonist-turned-secondary antagonist of Lords of Shadow 2. He is the Lords of Shadow games' version of Death and Shaft. History ''Lords of Shadow'' Zobek was one of the founders of the Brotherhood of Light along with Cornell and Carmilla. After the founders ascended to Heaven as pure spirits, they left their dark sides behind on Earth. Cornell became the Dark Lord of the Lycans, Carmilla became the Dark Lord of the Vampires, and Zobek became the Dark Lord of the Necromancers. Together, they formed an uneasy truce for centuries, but Zobek resented that truce and was prepared to find power over the others. His quest for that power led him to the depths of Hell, where he fought demons and became strong. Zobek put the Devil Mask on Gabriel Belmont while he was asleep so he would kill his wife, Marie, as well as Claudia. Satan's influence expanded his knowledge of the Dark Arts greatly, and he then cast a spell that separated Earth from Heaven, knowing that his good counterpart in Heaven would be forced to contact the Brotherhood. Zobek convinced Gabriel to go on a quest to unite the three pieces of the God Mask with the promise that Gabriel could use the mask to bring his wife back to life. After Gabriel defeated Cornell and Carmilla and reunited the pieces of the God Mask, Zobek put on the Devil Mask, showing his true form. After telling Gabriel that the prophecy was all a part of his plan to obtain power and that he made him kill Marie and Claudia, Gabriel tried to attack Zobek in a rage, but Zobek stopped him with the gauntlet that Gabriel took from Claudia's Black Knight and lifted him up the air, then killed Gabriel with lightning. Standing over Gabriel's corpse, Zobek picked up the God Mask and laughed triumphantly until he heard Satan's voice telling him that he and Gabriel were pawns in his plan to obtain the God Mask for his own ends. Zobek was then engulfed in flames by Satan, who decided that he no longer needed his assistance and took form over Zobek's body. Thousands of years later, Zobek, alive and well, encountered Gabriel, now Dracula, inside a cathedral. He told Dracula that Satan's Acolytes are preparing for their father's return and asked him to help him stop him lest Satan torture them both for eternity in Hell. When Dracula tried to bite Zobek's neck, Zobek teleported and blasted him through the cathedral window down to the streets of the city built upon the foundations of Castlevania. Zobek then offered to end Dracula's immortality if he helped him stop Satan. Lords of Shadow 2 Zobek returns as both an ally and antagonist in the sequel. When Dracula awakened weakened from centuries of starvation and his mind fragmented, Zobek sent his lieutenant to capture a family so Dracula could drain their blood and regain his strength. Zobek once again offered Dracula eternal rest if he helped him prevent Satan's Acolytes from bringing him back to Earth. He reassembled the Combat Cross that Dracula destroyed in the underworld after he defeated the Forgotten One and swore to him that if he succeeded in helping him, he would deliver the fatal blow to his heart. Zobek's true purpose, however, was to get rid of both Dracula and Satan so he could rule all. After defeating two of Satan's Acolytes and before confronting the final acolyte, Guido Szandor, Dracula was stopped by Zobek's lieutenant, who was actually his son Alucard, who restored his memories. It turned out that Alucard and Dracula devised a plan to destroy both Zobek and Satan. Alucard would stab Dracula's heart with his sword, the Crissagrim, not killing him but putting him in a deep slumber, and he would lose his powers and memories. Centuries would pass and Satan would think that Dracula was dead, driving Zobek out of hiding, and out of panic would look to Dracula for help to prevent Satan's return. As soon as Guido would summon Satan, Dracula would have both Zobek and Satan at the palm of his hand. When Dracula and Alucard allowed Guido to proceed with summoning Satan, Zobek was greatly angered by their betrayal, and he branded both vampires traitors and transformed into Death to destroy them. After a brutal battle, Dracula beat Zobek back into his human form. In a last-ditch effort, Zobek tried to kill Dracula with the Combat Cross, only for Dracula to impale him with the Void Sword. After letting out an evil laugh, Zobek's body turned into ice and shattered. With Zobek dead, Dracula finally got vengeance over the man who ruined his life. Powers and abilities Little of Zobek's abilities as a human was shown. However, it was certain that Zobek was considerably capable in combat and magic, as he was one of the founders of the Brotherhood of Light and considered to be among the finest Brotherhood warriors ever. His skills in battle and combative magic allowed him to, alongside Carmilla and Cornell, fight against the massively powerful Forgotten One, who was the sovereign of the elemental plane of Darkness on equal grounds, although they were not powerful enough to destroy him. Zobek was highly capable in casting arcane spells, as he and the other founders were able to reopen the portal to the Plane of Darkness in the summoning chamber in the heart of Bernhard Castle and upon managing to force the demon back to his realm and they also created a unique and immensely powerful spell that was bound to the life of the founders and worked even though their dark sides controlled their body. Only after 2 of the Lords of Shadow were killed did the seal weaken enough for the Forgotten One to escape. As the Dark Lord of Death, Zobek retained the impressive combat prowess and physical abilities that his light side has. He was able to hold back the Ice Titan's hand to protect Gabriel and leap to its shoulder as well as survive the fall to the ground. He also displayed incredible strength in Wygol Abbey, where he and Gabriel took turns holding up the stone roof as it nearly crushed them. As the Lord of the Necromancers, he is considered the most powerful Lord of Shadow and he governs over death and magic. Due to this, Zobek has control over all magical spells and items, allowing him to forcibly attach the Dark Gauntlet into Gabriel's arm and when faced by Gabriel, he was able to use the Gauntlet to stop Gabriel from harming him. His dominion over death allowed him to make a deal with deceased humans, giving them their powers in exchange for their soul, and in addition to having absolute control over the Necromancers, he can also apparently return their souls if he desires, as he promised a Necromancer he would return his soul if he were to bring Trevor's Combat Cross to him. Zobek also possessed very potent magical powers and his research for more power allowed him to gather a large amount of magical knowledge. He was able to use Magic to travel the Abyss and kill demons, granting him more strength. While possessed by Satan, his knowledge and power of the Dark Arts were expanded to "unimagined heights". This signifies that he is privy to powers previously held by Satan, evidenced by his control of the Black Knight's Gauntlet. With the knowledge and power Satan gave him, Zobek's magic grew so powerful that he was able to cast a spell strong enough to weaken the connection between Heaven and Earth and was also able to trap the souls of all deceased humans in Limbo. Although he lost the vast amount of knowledge and power he gained from Satan's possession, Zobek remains a very powerful and skilled sorcerer with knowledge of many spells due to having learned them over the centuries of his long life, as shown in Lords of Shadow 2, he displayed the knowledge and ability to effectively cast a spell of teleportation via opening portals, which he used to teleport Gabriel to locations to begin his missions and sometimes back to their lair and even a spell of confusion that emits a protective barrier of blue energy that can prevent anyone from leaving and block out signals emitted from using vast amounts of power, which he used to hide their presence while Dracula fights Raisa and proved potent enough to hide their presence long enough for Dracula to defeat Raisa and prevent her from leaving despite her vast power, although he expressed considerable difficulty maintaining it. He also taught spells to regenerate and create barriers to his Lieutenant. He could use magic to perform interdimensional travel and repair objects of incredible power broken to pieces while also restoring it to it's full power, as he traveled to the Plane of Darkness and found the pieces of the Vampire Killer and rebuilt the weapon with all of it's immortal killing power intact. He could craft objects of vast power using magic, as he created the armor and Masamune blade his Lieutenant wielded. For offense, Zobek can also use magic to fire shockwaves and orbs of green energy. A shockwave of said energy was strong enough to easily send a weakened Dracula crashing through glass and plummeting to the ground when they fought in the Church. He can magically emit a green electricity strong enough to nearly kill Gabriel despite his extreme durability and endurance, needing the aid of the spirits to recover. Zobek can also use magic to levitate himself off the ground, as he does when searching for Dracula and later while maintaining a spell of confusion to block any signal emitted by Raisa Volkova's power. His claims to be able to see what is happening in the Bioquimek Corporation indicates he is capable of using magic to astral project himself to a location, although it apparently emits a rather large amount of magical energy as Zobek said it would be traced back to him in mere minutes. He may have used a spell to be able to look into the Corporation without needing to project himself so as to be able to provide telepathic guidance to Dracula for him to overcome what obstacle laid in his way. He also possesses powerful telepathic powers that have a very long range, as he is known to be able to read the minds of others, as Dracula stated that he found Alucard's trap for Zobek to be futile as in Dracula's weakened state, Zobek can easily see through the charade and overpower him due to Crissaegrim severely weakening him. The only known way to repel Zobek's Telepathy is for someone to use a magical object to block his mind-reading powers or if said individual were to feel nothing but chaos or confusion. He can even do this from a good distance away, as he quickly found out the truth between Dracula's incapacitation once Dracula regained his memories and Alucard had removed the armor's protection. He can also telepathically contact and commune with Dracula even from vast distances to guide him in his missions, even able to do this in magically protected locations. His Telepathic powers appears to be quite subtle, as he was able to give instructions to Dracula without being sensed in the Bioquimek Corporation and only when Dracula was in close proximity to Raisa Volkova was he sensed and even that took seconds. His ability to detect the presence of magic and powerful beings was quite strong, as he was able to detect that the Bioquimek Corporation is protected magically and Dracula has awakened from miles away. Later, he also showed the ability to use his senses to locate the presence of his target by tracing their power, as he deduced that an Acolyte is operating in the Bioquimek Corporation from following the spectral traces left by their activities and later used the same method to trace Nergal to his location. Like his fellow Lords of Shadow, Zobek is immortal, evident by his return centuries later. Though he later meets his end at the hands of Dracula. Like all other Lords of Shadow, Zobek has a true form that is Death itself, and with it has a slew of formidable powers and abilities that made him able to hold off Dracula with all his powers. In it he has extreme durability, able to take several blows from Dracula's weapons and wields a long, whip-like scythe forged from bones and metal with extreme proficiency, capable of performing many unblockable attacks. He also has the ability to emit green lightning that can stun Dracula in place so Zobek can freely attack him and summon legions of the dead. He seems to be able to use magic to bind the summon to the statues-turned-corpses, as they will continue to spawn unless the statues be destroyed. When he attempts to recover after being beaten back to his human form, Zobek can cover himself with a protective cage made of the scythe of his true form that cannot be frozen and must be bypassed using Mist Form. He displays strong recovery rate, as he can quickly recover and re-assume his true form if not beaten. Gallery 4D35645A-D073-4250-B24A-5D9525C5C673.jpeg|Zobek in his youth, one of the founders of the Brotherhood of Light. External links *Zobek in Castlevania Wiki. External links *Zobek at the Castlevania Wiki Navigation Category:Summoners Category:Castlevania Villains Category:Dark Fantasy Villains Category:Video Game Villains Category:Game Bosses Category:Traitor Category:Evil Vs. 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